The men’s attorney said the two are union carpenters who were working to dismantle dozens of booths at the convention. Freddy Rabner said at the end of the convention they saw the antlers lying on the floor as they were about to get crushed by a fork lift. …
Rabner said the men brought the antlers to the registration table in an effort to find the rightful owners. According to the carpenters, the antlers never left convention center property. …
The judge dismissed the case because of lack of evidence.

If all they have is security footage of them walking inside the convention center in plain view with the antlers, I think this is a good call. You can’t prove one way or the other what their intent was in that case. If they were getting them out of the way of potential damage, then they should be thanked.

David… You’re painting people with a really broad brush. Seems like that happens a lot about gun owners. I don’t like it when it happens to me and I try not to do it to others. There are a lot of good honest people among those union workers so unless you have some info on these two people yiu should keep those opinions to yourself.

Or jim, I should say what I think and you should respect that I have a right to voice my opinion even if you don’t like it. Sorry, I’ve dealth too much with thieving union carpenters, electricians, plumbers, and labors who think it’s their right to steal from my job sites as if it’s part of their compensation. Funnier is when they steal something physically small that has felony theft value, it’s funny how the local business agent will do almost anything not to get me to press charges. Their contract may protect them against being lazy but not against stealing from me.

I think the important thing we can find in this story is that we can’t determine intent. The judge found zero evidence that they were actually trying to steal the antlers, and the good samaritan defense is a reasonable explanation given what evidence was available. Remember that we live in a society that requires evidence “beyond a reasonable doubt” for criminal prosecution.

I’ve been around my fair share of smaller events like gun shows & larger sized sportsmen’s shows during setup & takedown. Their defense is perfectly reasonable given the situation around those types of events. People don’t often watch out for things lying around, and sometimes items – even big ones – get left behind as someone has to maneuver a handtruck or step outside to pull up a truck to a loading dock. It can be a scramble, which is one reason I always perfected my set up to take no more than two trips out to the car with the cart, and nothing was left near a loading dock area when I did have to take things out, it was always on my handtruck or in the booth. If these men did try to protect these antlers, then good for them. And good for the judge for recognizing a lack of evidence to the contrary.